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One of the 2 lane hazzards

MECOSTA COUNTY, MI - A 56-year-old Big Rapids resident was killed Friday after his motorcycle struck a tractor that turned in front of him, according to a press release from Michigan State Police.

James Zielske was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which happened in Grant Township at about 6:40 p.m., authorities said.

Zielski was traveling north on 160th Avenue near Coolidge Road when a tractor driven by a juvenile male turned in front of him. The accident is being reviewed by the Mecosta County Prosecutor?s office, officials said.

Motorcyclist injured in collision with moose on Parks Highway
Published: July 3, 2013

By Anchorage Daily News ? Anchorage

A motorcycle collided with a moose on the Parks Highway Wednesday afternoon, seriously injuring the motorcycle rider, according to Alaska State Troopers.

The first 911 call about the crash came in just after 3:30 p.m.

Scott Smith, 44, of Georgia, was riding a BMW 800cc adventure bike northbound when a cow moose ran in front of him at Mile 147, near the Alaska Veterans Memorial, said trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen. Smith was third in a line of three motorcyclists from Georgia touring Alaska on bikes rented from a Palmer shop. He was wearing a helmet.

?The motorcycle hit the moose dead center in the body,? Ipsen said in an email. ?The mama moose ran off the road and into the woods where she was found dead.?

The calf hasn?t been found.

Troopers called a charity to process and salvage the meat.

An air ambulance helicopter flew Smith to a hospital. He was conscious and talking at the scene.

The highway was closed for about one and a half hours.

AND

Washington Man Killed in Taylor Highway Motorcycle Crash

ANCHORAGE, Alaska?
Alaska State Troopers say the Taylor Highway remains closed Friday night, after a Washington man died when his motorcycle veered across the center line and struck an oncoming recreational vehicle.

According to AST spokesperson Beth Ipsen, 63-year-old Roy Ovist of Lakewood, Wash. was declared dead at the scene of the crash, at roughly Mile 8.6 of the highway.

Troopers say Ovist was riding a 2006 BMW R1200RT sport touring cycle. He was headed north on the highway, about two miles away from a friend on another motorcycle with whom he was traveling, when he collided with a 40.5-foot-long motorhome driven by John A. Sharps Jr., 67, of Livingston, Texas.

Ipsen says the crash occurred on a straight stretch of the highway between two curves, with a reported break in the pavement. Evidence at the scene indicates that Ovist may have tried to brake in the moments before the two vehicles struck.

?He was riding north and something happened where he crossed the road and headed into the path of a motorhome,? Ipsen said. ?There appears to be a long skid mark up to the point of impact.?

Medics from Tok reached the scene just after 11:20 a.m. but declared Ovist, who was wearing a helmet, dead after they arrived. No other injuries were reported in the crash.

The Taylor Highway is expected to remain closed until 8 p.m. as troopers investigate the collision, with Department of Transportation crews placing a barricade at the highway?s junction with the Alaska Highway.

Ipsen says drivers on the highway are diverting to Chicken at Mile 66, the nearest stop for gas, food and lodging.

Ovist?s next of kin have been notified, and troopers say there are no indications that drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash.

MECOSTA COUNTY, MI - A 56-year-old Big Rapids resident was killed Friday after his motorcycle struck a tractor that turned in front of him, according to a press release from Michigan State Police.

Left-turners are the bane of motorcyclists. Most truck drivers are professional and some of the best drivers on the road.

Because left-turn wrecks are so serious, it is vital for motorcyclists to acknowledge this and take steps to counter the danger. Wearing black from head to toe isn't the way to do that. The problem isn't the driver turning left seeing the motorcyclist, it is his perceiving the motorcyclist. While his eyes might work okay, his brain has to process the visual signals and percieve the motorcyclist, and that's where the problem is. Since he isn't into motorcycling like we are, he may simply not be looking for motorcyclists on the road. If you want to be percieved, you need to stand out visually: high beam, white helmet, hi-viz helps as well.

In 70 percent of the two-vehicle crashes, the other driver failed to "perceive" the two-wheeler, causing the authors to classify this as a primary accident cause. The motorcyclist's failure to see the other vehicle was listed as a secondary accident cause. Drivers of other vehicles who were licensed to ride motorcycles were less likely to overlook a motorcyclist, a finding which mirrors previous studies.

Hi-viz isn't the complete answer, since there are wrecks caused by obstructed vision. Drivers whose vision is blocked will turn and cause wrecks and this needs to be dealt with as well.

I certainly sympathize for anyone in crash, especially when we riders are probably some of the better road users compared to the multitudes of idiots and distracted non-involved cage drivers on the road these days. Hi-vis, and anything else we can do to improve our awareness helps, since I feel it is more up to us as riders to improve our odds than to expect any real help/change from other road users.

But so often, I can't help but cringe when I read reports of riders caught in the "suddenly" moments of crashes with other road users, especially the left-turners and U-turners that fail to yeild to our right of way. We can argue our "right" of way all we want, but it is really up to us to improve our situational awareness, our SA as posted earlier. A heightened sense of SA, built over time of seat time/experience and of regularly/routinely playing "What If" scenarios when riding is a tremendous aid to reduce instances of close calls and crashes (I don't like to call them accidents).

Maybe instead of a thread of Crashes/Close-Calls, we'd be better off to have a thread about Situational Awareness, building your SA. Reporting crashes and talking about crashes/close-call is really only valuable IF a lot of analysis is applied to the WHY-WHEN-WHAT-WHO-HOW aspects of the event to determine the root causes.

And yes, I understand "some" crashes may truely be accidents. But those are really a very small percentage of the crashes, and most any cycle-safety expert (Hough, Code, Grodsky, Parks, Condon, etc, etc) will say the MOST crashes can be avoided or significantly reduced by what WE the riders do, not what we expect the other road users to do for us.

Get trained! The best "performance" upgrade you can get is YOU. Visit msf-usa.org for training info.

I think Crash Chronicles is fine

Knowing how to ride has nothing to do with Crashing. As has been proven by one or the best trainers who was killed by a deer, crashing happen. There are many post about riding, this is just a report without judgement in most cases.

Every where on MOA you get information about training, and skill. Keep talking training, and proper motorcycle maintenance to help prevent accidents. Let these posting serve as warnings to be careful out there.

Knowing how to ride has nothing to do with Crashing. As has been proven by one or the best trainers who was killed by a deer, crashing happen. There are many post about riding, this is just a report without judgement in most cases.

Every where on MOA you get information about training, and skill. Keep talking training, and proper motorcycle maintenance to help prevent accidents. Let these posting serve as warnings to be careful out there.

I disagree, strongly. Knowing how to ride has everything to do with not crashing! Granted, some crashes are unavoidable. However, even Larry's fatal crash had some things we can all learn (relearn?) from- he was riding at early evening hours in wooded, hilly country, at the end of a long day, intent on making the last few hours to get home. Get the picture? What should he have done differently? How could his crash been avoided?
We all know that riding bikes is risky, and that crashes do happen, nothing new there. Maybe it's just me (doubt it), but I see NO benefit in just posting up reports of m/c crashes, without some ability to examine the causative factors for the purpose of helping others avoid such situations.

This is from the OP, and Don E. that started this thread. I suggest we continue in the spirit that he and Don stated at it's beginning:

"This sticky is designed to share the invaluable strategies members have learned from crashes or near misses. The overriding goal is to share a learned strategy with the group that can be assimilated and hopefully prevent other members from crashing and minimize the number of near misses."

"Please join in this thread in the spirit that it was suggested and created in - helping other riders to improve their possibilities of avoiding road incidents! "

I'm not saying the Crash Chronical has no value, as I agree it makes one think about the risks involved in everyday riding. The intent is not to scare us into realization, but to hopefully get us to discuss the many aspects of riding and crashing. But the real value in any crash chronical is learning from it. And the biggest value in that is learning everything that lead to the crash. It is in the minutes and seconds BEFORE the crash that we can all most benefit and learn, that is the first place we have the best opportunity to adjust or change or riding to help avoid the crash altogether.

Last edited by ANDYVH; 07-11-2013 at 01:05 AM.

Get trained! The best "performance" upgrade you can get is YOU. Visit msf-usa.org for training info.

I was amazed at how invisible one was to me and I think I have a relative good eye for catching a bike in traffic.

How visible are we really on our bike in different conditions?

Moving along a 2 lane street, 2 way traffic, old residential area but a through street with some lights (Wrightsville Ave in Wilmington near the hospital for those who know) but street not that wide, sun behind me. I was watching traffic approach up ahead, nothing close to me in my lane., Trees around with shade but street running east west had the lane mostly sunny.

Out of now where I saw this bike heading toward me turn left across my lane. Once he initiated the turn I picked up the movement. Newish cruiser, well polished, no fairing, chrome all around the front and typical 3 lights across the front. No signal that I detected.

The amazing thing was his center light was on and set in low beam and it appeared to be an OEM light fixture and not HID.. Nothing much was visible of it. Truly once it caught my attention it was just a bit of light golden light inside the lens, not much reflected at me at all.

It provided a bit of fill in light that actually made him a bit more invisible being slightly cream colored. The chrome as well picked up the colors of the day and surrounding landscape. His helmet was black. Shirt (which really wasn't visible behind the headlight/cluster/bars) was dark but not black, perhaps a dark sandy brown. There was nothing that made him stand out against his background of other cars approaching and the grey of the asphalt. Once turning across my lane I could also see his tank was silver/gray.

I was stunned at how invisible he was.

Would I have pulled out in front of him? If I did a quick stop look and roll, there is a good chance I might have. As for motorist looking only for the bulk of a car or larger, he was amazingly unnoticeable.

Lesson to self to re evaluate conspicuousness of my lighting, front and rear. I have one bike that is not very good and that will be modified. While I think there is a trade off between running brights in the day as it is hard to judge distance and speed, in his case it would have been a good safety measure. If he had on a hi viz shirt/vest, I most likely would not have been able to see it, A bright helmet perhaps, but most half helmets don't provide that much frontal mass to aid in being seen. So in this instance additional lighting would be crucial for him to be seen.

As for the lighting, I have some friends who have GSs and the smaller lens size during the day doesn't really add much jump out and see me like other lights do. A single orange day running light on cars provides more "see me' than I notice in their standard light.

OK.. back to the chores at hand.

NCS

A friend did get hit today but was able to ride back home, was going to get things checked out this afternoon.

"Was sitting on capital at the light for Burlington Mill, probably 3rd or 4th in line in the right lane. I left space, guy behind me left space....

Some jack ass in the left lane decided he wanted to test that Pauli Exclusion principle.....
He punched it, went to hop in the "empty space"
I went sailing. My leg hurts pretty good.

his first reaction was to accuse me of "coming out of nowhere"

I was pissed enough that I still waited for police so he got a ticket.
guy offered me a hundred bucks. But I wanted him to get a ticket...

he got two tickets. Failure to yield right of way, and improper lane change causing an accident i think.

Basically the cop told him the judge would drop one, but both were point offences. (I wasn't getting the tickets, so I didn't pay that much attention.) "

Unusal but happens

Kalamazoo woman was hospitalized late Thursday after she was struck by a motorcycle as she tried to cross Park Street downtown near Bronson Park, police said. The crash was reported just before 9:30 p.m. at the
intersection of Park and Academy Street, Kalamazoo Public Safety Lt. Matthew Huber said. Friends of the woman, who identified her as Cerita Blackburn, said Blackburn was crossing from the west side of Park to the street?s east side when a motorcycle struck her. Sequiera said he and Blackburn, who he said was intoxicated, had walked from a bench on Michigan Avenue and were headed to Bronson Park when Blackburn struck.

Two near misses at once

I was driving a rental van, towing a car yesterday east of Des Moines. Two bandanaheads came out of a rest area behind a semi and another truck. Inside guy gooses it, THEN looks to see if there are any vehicles in the LH lane. Outside guy follows his buddy without looking.

Fortunately I had a pretty good sense that these guys would do just that and I backed off my overtaking the semi. I can only hope that one of these guys soiled himself and will look in the future.

Sidebar: they passed us twice more on I80 by the time we got to Grand Island where we left the slab.

Traveling too Fast

Sheriff Dale R. Gribler reports that Van Buren County Sheriff Deputies along with additional Emergency Services Personnel responded to a 911 call reporting a motorcycle personal injury crash that had occurred on the I-94 Eastbound off ramp at exit 52 (Lawrence). Emergency responders on scene found one person injured, and only 1 vehicle involved in this crash, that being a 1995 Harley Davidson motorcycle. The motorcycle operator, identified as 40-year-old Steven Kuchik from La Porte Indiana was soaking wet, as did he have visible injury to his head and was complaining of severe back pain. Investigation into the crash found that Kuchik had been operating his motorcycle Eastbound on I-94 and exited off at the Lawrence exit. Kuchik lost control on the ramp, traveled off the paved portion of this road, hit a traffic sign which resulted in him being ejected off the bike and into a water filled ravine. Kuchik was able to crawl to up out of the ditch where a passing motorist stopped to help and called 911. Kuchik was transported by ambulance to Watervliet ER for treatment of injuries that are non-life threatening. Kuchik was not wearing a helmet and was cited for traveling speed too fast.

Watch for animals!
I've been riding a motorcycle most of my life and did so as a motor-cop for a number of years. I've seen just about every situation there is, but yesterday I had my first close encounter with a deer.

I was taking a short ride up hwy 33 and into Matilija Canyon to check on some property I own there. It's only a few miles from my home, the weather was perfect, few cars around. While cruising along the canyon rd, through some rights turns at a modest 20-25 mph, two deer suddenly appeared at the side of the rode. At the same moment, both deer darted right out in front of me to cross the road. I hit the brakes hard on my 08 R1200 RT, but it wasn't enough. Suddenly a deer was on my front fender pushing my bike sideways. A big THUMP followed. I did what I was trained to do, kept my feet up, got off the brake and slid a bit sideways. The deer kept going and I stopped in the middle of the road. The deer was already running up the hill nearby as I checked for damage. My front Cee Baily headlamp cover was pushed sideways but there was no damage. I don't think the deer was hurt was hurt at all.

I'd say I was lucky not to go down and even luckier to not get injured. Thankfully I was going slow. We've all seen deer, Elk, bears, coyotes, and small animals near roads in the forests.

So, be careful out there brothers. This is the time of year when forest and woodland creatures make bad roadside decisions you cannot predict. If you get in this predicament, keep your cool, don't put your feet down and focus down the road. Save your own life first.
Jeff